The present invention relates to a composite material having a light weight, increased mechanical strength and other improved material characteristics such as high damping ability, and a light filler material to be filled in the composite material, and more particularly to materials of these kinds containing therein fine granular additives (hereinafter referred to as microspheres), which are small in size and weight and high in heat resistance.
Recently, a number of light materials and light composite materials have been developed, which have improved material characteristics. However, it is still difficult to make materials of these kinds lighter in weight and at the same time higher in strength because of incompatability between these factors, by the use of conventional arts of selecting a specific combination of metallic constituents each having a considerably large density. Conventional composite materials such as ones containing carbon fibers are also insufficient in this respect. The present inventor proposed a light metallic composite material comprised of a matrix of a light metallic material and microspheres mixed in the matrix, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 9830/1986 (Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 170440/1987). However, it is difficult to disperse additives whose density differ from that of the matrix (the microspheres, for instance) uniformly in the matrix.
It has been also known to make electrical component parts such as a head arm for supporting a magnetic head of a disk device, and a printer head for movably receiving printing wires of a printer with the use of a damping material, so as to improve the performance of a device in which the electrical component part is mounted. For instance, a light head arm having an excellent damping ability, which is made of a high-porosity damping material, has been known. However, it is difficult to make a structural material for electrical component parts of this kind have a desired vibration amplitude-frequency characteristic.